Saturday, October 28, 2006

When We Wake Up On November 8, 2006

What would we find as we digest results of the midterm elections ? The map dominated by "red", Republican, states as in 2004? Although the headlines read "Republicans facing 'electoral hurricane' in face of centrist Democrat push", the report filed by Julian Borger from Knoxville,TN, in The Guardian mentions possible scenarios:

What if ..? The Capitol Hill scenarios

Democrats win the House of Representatives alone

This would put a serious dent in the last two years of the Bush presidency. Democrats would be able to put forward their own legislation and control the federal budget. They would also take over the chairs of the powerful House committees, armed with power of subpoena, allowing them to launch investigations into the Iraq war and other presidential decisions taken in the first six Bush years.

Democrats win both the House and Senate

They would have total control of the legislative agenda, forcing the president to accept it or use his veto. The Senate can launch its own investigations, which are taken more seriously. It has the additional power of ratifying treaties and confirming judicial nominations and cabinet appointments. With control of both houses, the Democrats could bring the Bush presidency to a virtual halt. George Bush would be a lame duck.

The Democrats fail to capture either chamber

It would stun the party and plunge it into even deeper despair and defeatism, triggering an all-out fight between its competing power centres. The Bush White House would be given a new lease of life at home and abroad, and the president's influence over his party would be reasserted.